


How Will I Know?

by sulasass



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Friends, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-27 22:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12592340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sulasass/pseuds/sulasass
Summary: Eleven doesn’t know she’s in love with Mike.Mike thinks he gotten over being in love with her.Everyone else knows that they’re pretty much meant to be together.AU – Mike and Eleven are in senior year and have been best friends for years, but things might be changing or maybe something was there all along. (Still set in the 80s, no powers for Eleven)





	1. My Guy

**Author's Note:**

> Falling in love is all bitter sweet  
> This love is strong why do I feel weak
> 
> Oh, wake me, I'm shaking, wish I had you near me now  
> Said there's no mistaking, what I feel is really love 
> 
> How will I know (Whitney Houston)
> 
> OKAY, firstly, I don't know why I've posted this, because I am in the middle of another fic and going on holiday in just over a week, but what kind of mileven shipper would I be if I wasn't so distraught and full of feelings after season 2 that I didn't write a fic?? And I can only really write AU stuff so here ya go.
> 
> I am setting this in the 80s, but I am not an 80s kid, so this could go very badly. 80s music is going to be very integral to this fic (but let's ignore that no 80s song features in this chapter)

_December 4 th, 1984 _

Eleven cautiously walked down the steps to Mike’s basement after being let into the house by his mother. She was cautious as she couldn’t hear the usual noise that the boys created when they were together.

“Mike?” She called, hearing a crashing noise as soon as she called out. She quickened her pace down the stairs and found Mike seemingly tidying.

“Oh, hey, El.” He stood up then, giving her the smallest of waves. She quietly helped him picking up the things he had let crash the floor, but the whole while she was wondering where everyone else was. Her and Mike rarely spent any time just the two of them together since she had made her new friends in Hawkins, but this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing if they were alone now– she had decided almost instantly that Mike was her favourite of the boys.

 “Where’s everyone else?” She asked, pointing out the obvious elephant in the room.

“Well, I just invited you.” He was fidgeting almost nervously, his eyes going from his hands to her face.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Neither of them moved for a moment, but Mike’s hands kept fidgeting in front of him as before.

“Yeah, well, I just thought,” Mike began to elaborate. “As you agreed to go to Snow Ball with me that we should practice…”

“Practice?”

Eleven had no idea what was going on, but she was never very good at picking up on social cues.

“I can’t dance, can you?” Eleven shook her head slowly. “So maybe we should practice and figure it out together.”

“Should we practice with the others?”

Mike stared at her confusion for a second before shaking his head adamantly.

“ _What_? No, no, I won’t need to dance with them and you won’t either…”

Eleven didn’t take her eyes off Mike. She was slowly comprehending what this all meant, but Mike knew he needed to explain it properly.

“Okay, so when I asked you to come to Snow Ball,” He sighed mid-sentence, clearly feeling embarrassed that he had to go this in-depth. “That meant that we go together and we dance to music and stuff together… We don’t do it with anyone else.”

Eleven took a moment to think that over. She definitely didn’t know that was how it worked, but now it made more sense why Mike had sort of cornered her with the question at school and made sure none of their friends were around. Of course she still didn’t really understand why he wanted it to just be the two of them going to the dance, but maybe she had asked enough questions already.

“Okay.”

Mike smiled softly at her, as he did so often and moved to the little table that lived in the basement. There was a cassette player on top of it and with the flick of a switch, a song familiar to Eleven began to play. It was My Girl by The Temptations.

“I like this song,” She stated quietly, beginning to smile as she followed Mike over to the table.

“Uh… yeah? It’s not mine – I mean, I don’t listen to this stuff – it’s my Mom’s, but I thought we could practice to it.” Mike’s hands were moving wildly again as he spoke, but she had quickly become accustomed to Mike never being able to keep his arms still.

Eleven didn’t say anything and just continued to stare at him with a smile. Mike nodded quickly and then picked up her arms.

“So I think your hands go here,” He placed them around his neck and Eleven’s eyes widened slightly at the skin to skin contact with Mike. His hands went to rest on her upper waist. “And my hands go here.”

Mike coughed for no apparent reason, but to create noise to hide the uncomfortable situation they were in. They weren’t moving until Mike stepped one foot to the side and Eleven simply tried to copy him.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s right.” Mike said, continuing to step back and forth as Eleven copied him. “At least I think so.”

Eleven softly hummed along to the song as they continued to move around in an almost circle with no apparent purpose, but she still found it nice. Their faces got closer and closer as they continued spinning.

_What can make me feel this way? My girl, talkin’ ‘bout my girl._

“I guess you’re going to be my girl for the Snow Ball.” Mike let out an awkward chuckle after saying that and Eleven joined in, but almost out of politeness. She didn’t know if that was a joke or not.

“And you’ll be my boy?” Eleven asked and Mike turned away, giving a shrug that she felt in her arms as they were still placed around his neck.

“Or guy, you know, I’m thirteen, so I’m not really a boy anymore.” She gave him an amused smile, but didn’t say anything else. “There isn’t a song called ‘My Guy’ anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.”

Eleven didn’t mind being Mike’s girl for the night, whatever that meant. Based on the lyrics she was hearing, she decided it was a good thing and it might make Mike happy.

“I’ll be your girl then? Promise?”

Mike paused, as if not understanding what she was properly referring to and El wasn’t quite sure herself. Maybe it was to the dance or maybe it was to somewhere down the line in their future.

“Promise.”

Their foreheads touched as the song began to end and they stayed like that for a few more moments. It was the most comfortable she had felt with a person and things would always be different and stronger in their friendship from that moment onwards even after their foreheads stopped leaning against each other.

 

* * *

 

 

_November 24 th, 1988_

Eleven dragged Mike by the hand into their local music store, creatively called ‘Hawkins Music’. Mike laughed loudly at the excitement Eleven was expressing over bringing him here, even if he was also kind of confused by the whole situation too. Contagiously, Eleven started giggling too.

“Why are you dragging me here, El?” He asked for the hundredth time, but Eleven was refusing to give up the answer. It was too exciting for her to just simply tell him what it was.

Yes, Eleven was still known by the nickname she had developed when she first came to Hawkins and now it was treated like it wasn’t even her nickname, because it got even shorter as years went on to being just El.

“For very important reasons, Mike!” She was still holding him by the hand as she dragged him through the aisles, searching for something.

“I don’t get why the hell you’d want to come here on your day off?” He asked, raising an excellent question.

She, and Will Byers, worked here usually one evening a week after school and one day at the weekend. Hopper, her adopted Dad, wanted her to learn what the working world was like and it wasn’t like it was a very strenuous job. Besides nobody really spoke to her when she was working and that was the number one perk of the job.

Eleven now stopped in front of a stack of tapes, one hand still clutching on to Mike’s hand as if he might escape her if she let go for a second, and her other hand flicked through the tapes.

“Okay, okay, here you go!” She exclaimed, pulling out the tape she wanted to find and releasing Mike’s hand to replace her grip with the tape. Mike gave an amused smile, not used to seeing El this excited about anything. It was obvious that this tape held major significance, but how could a tape be that important?

“Mary Wells? Who’s she?” Mike asked, flipping the tape over in his hands, not getting it.

“Look at the title.” El placed her hands on top of Mike’s to stop him turning the tape over and over again.

 “’Mary Wells Sings My Guy’” Mike read out slowly in a low and fairly dramatic voice. “Okay?”

“So she actually has this song called, ‘My Guy’.” El stated, still excited, waiting for the pin to hopefully drop, because otherwise this wasn’t as an important memory to him as it was to her. As time ticked on, El lost hope and her wide eyes drooped, as she watched Mike continue to stare in mild confusion. “You don’t remember…”

“So are you saying you’ve been looking this for four years trying to make a point?” Mike asked it so casually that it took a moment for Eleven to realise what he was saying.

“You remember us dancing to ‘My Girl’?”

“Yeah,” Mike started tapping the tape against his hand, exhaling before continuing on. “I’m just surprised you do.”

“Of course I do.” She simply stated.

How could she ever forget that?

“I guess we should… uh… listen to it?” Mike asked, prompting Eleven to grow excited once again. She pulled the tape from his hand and pulled on his hand to take him to the back of the store. She had already listened and thought it was perfect, so she required Mike to listen to it as well.

“Carl, we’re going in the back!” She called to the half-asleep guy working on the counter as a way of greeting.

The back of the store was a basic room with an old couch, table and a little cassette player. In fact it wasn’t that different from Mike’s basement when they had done this last time, but it was just a little smaller. It was as if she was trying to recreate the first time they got close and she kind of was, but it wasn’t something she would ever admit to anyone, not even herself.

She pushed the tape in the player as Mike sat down on the couch. They stood in silence as the song started up.

“How’s your dancing?” El asked softly, remembering the thing that spurred on this whole mission of hers.

“Rusty.”

“Snow Ball is coming up, maybe we should practice.”

“El, it’s not called fucking Snow Ball anymore. It’s Winter Formal.” Despite Mike’s problem with what she was saying, he was beginning to stand up and approach her to where she stood near the cassette player.

“I prefer Snow Ball.”

The first Snow Ball she had gone to was also coincidentally the last one she ever went to. In High School there were no Snow Balls and in fact there were minimal dances occurring during her High school years. There were parties and such, but there were no formal school dances.

Well, there was a Summer Dance at the end of the last school year, but everyone was pretty much in agreement that it sucked. She wasn’t sure she was exactly in agreement with everyone though, some good things happened for her.

 It seemed Senior year was throwing dances at them from all directions – they had Winter Formal and Prom. Maybe Hawkins High School wanted to make everyone’s last year as memorable as possible. 

“Yeah, but we’re supposed to be more mature now and use more grown-up titles for things.”

“Are you?” Eleven asked a lot of questions whenever she didn’t understand something and she was never afraid to ask. Mike seemed to take the wrong perspective on her question and thought she was talking about him specifically.

“What? Come on, I’m super, _super_ mature.” She giggled at that and didn’t explain she wasn’t insulting his maturity.

“Okay,” She didn’t sound thoroughly convinced though. Instead she picked up his arms and placed them on her waist – slightly lower down than they would have done when they were thirteen. “I think you put your hands here.”

He lifted up her arms and placed them around his neck.

“And I think you put your arms just here.”

_I’m tellin’ you from the start I can’t be torn apart from my guy._

They began twirling around together, the nostalgia setting in from all sides that this is what they had alone in Mike’s basement years ago. Mike wasn’t looking up at her, but he was smiling to himself and she wondered if the thoughts of their Snow Ball together were going through his mind like they were in hers.

“I think we’ve improved at this.”

“Wanna bet?” Mike said with a smirk, as he took one of her hands and spun her around in a circle. She giggled at the surprise of it all, returning to fall back into Mike’s arms with barely any distance between them now. They smiled at each other, not looking away like they had done before.

Their foreheads touched and their mouths spaces from joining together. In a breath, she could close that distance, but she never made the first move when it came to them doing that – not that it happened often, however now seemed like the kind of opportunity for them to do that. It felt just like it had when their lips had touched those four previous times they had done it in their lives.

They were close, silent and not looking away from each other – that seemed to be the criteria.

He pulled away though as soon as the song’s last line rang out.

_There’s not a man today who could take me away from my guy._

El watched him, trying to gauge why he got away from her like that, but he seemed normal apart from that – maybe El was just wrong and it wasn’t an opportunity.

“I think we’re ready for Winter Formal then.” Mike commented, before slouching back on to the couch. El turned off the cassette and slightly disappointedly took a seat on the couch next to Mike.

“I was impressed with us.” El replied, resting her head on his shoulder. “We should teach the others.”

The others referred to Will, Dustin, Lucas and Max. There was a moment of silence as Mike considered that.

“Yeah, I think Dustin wouldn’t like us trying to change his dancing style.” The soft laugh that left him shook El a little as her head stayed against his shoulder.

“Even if it scares others off.” She smiled, thinking back to the Summer dance where Dustin literally scared off half the girls he came into contact with due to his wild dancing.

“He doesn’t really need to practice if he’s going to do the same as last time then he’s not going to dance with anyone.”

“Hey, he danced with me!” He hadn’t really danced with her, like it was a choice he had made, but El had decided to join him and had taken the time to mimic his every move, having a great time dancing, not caring what anyone else thought.

“That wasn’t how _we_ dance though.” His voice was almost a whisper and El could agree with him – that almost definitely wasn’t how the two of them danced. Even if a song appeared to be quite upbeat, her and Mike danced in the way they just had.

“That’s different…” El acknowledged. “Dustin just needs someone who dances like him.”

“Okay, you’re right, but I’ll leave that task for you, because that sounds too fucking hard.” He laughed again.

“Fine. Are we still going to the party tomorrow? I could start my search then.” El asked and Mike shrugged, messing around with his wrist.

“I don’t know, I’ll have to ask the others tomor- _Shit_.” He broke himself off to swear, concentrating hard on his watch.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, sitting up and moving her hand to his knee to reassure him of anything that might have happened in the space of five seconds.

“Uh… nothing, I’m just supposed to be at home, like right now.” He stood up, looking ready to leave right that second.

“ _Oh_ , but it’s still early?”

“Yeah, but my Mom knows I’m way behind on homework. Anyway, see you tomorrow.” He turned to leave, causing El to slump further into her seat, but at the last second he turned back around to run over and give El a swift kiss on her cheek.

That was enough to keep her smiling.   

 

* * *

 

 

After Mike had left her in the Music store, she decided to head over to the Arcade as she knew Max would either be on her shift there or trying to set a new high score on one of the many machines she seemed to already have a high score on.

Max was behind the counter, lazily braiding her hair, and when she noticed El enter, she stood up straighter.

“Let me guess, you need a ride?” This was Max’s greeting and El wondered if she was really that transparent.

“I guess… But only if you’re able to.” She shrugged, trying to make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal either way. It was a pretty huge deal though. Mike shooting off left Eleven practically stranded unless she walked it home.

“When are you going to start driving?”

She was asked this question a lot. She was the only one now of her friends who couldn’t drive. This was due to the combined reason of that Hopper didn’t think it was safe for El to drive and El thinking it wasn’t safe for El to drive.

She had tried and it wasn’t exactly successful, so she would continue to rely on her friends until it got too dependent of her.

“Soon.”

“I told you I would teach you -,” Max paused, noticing something going on near the counter. “ _Hey_ , kid, I told you that if you kick that machine one more time, I’ll kick you the hell out of here.”

El watched the said kid turn back around to the machine, looking a little sheepish and treating the machine with much better care. Max was scary when she wanted to be and that happened to be a lot of the time.

El turned back around to reply to Max.

“I don’t think I want lessons from you.”

Firstly, Max was scary and would probably spend most of their lessons yelling at El and secondly, Max was equally scary behind a wheel as she was in person. Max was probably the last person she went to for a ride.

“ _Hey_ , have I killed you yet?” Max asked, still keeping an eye on the kid on the machine.

“No, but you saying ‘yet’ is kind of scary.”

Max laughed and that didn’t exactly help settle El’s fears, but she laughed all the same. 

“I finish in an hour, so if you’re fine to wait.” El nodded eagerly at Max’s offer. “Where you been anyway?”

“With Mike.” It never normally needed further explanation. “Oh hey, are you still free for the party?”

“Ugh, where is the party this week?” Max was fussier when it came to who was hosting the party than most people were in their group.

“Um… Robert Hutch?”

“He’s usually not an asshole, so I’ll allow it.”

 El let out a small giggle, but Max standing up straighter and staring right behind El caused her to freeze.

“What the hell?” El turned her head to see what any kid could be doing to shock Max so much and it became clear almost immediately.

“Oh, wow.”

She couldn’t quite believe her eyes as she saw who had just entered the building. Why the hell would they be at the arcade?

Jennifer Hayes, Stacey-Ann Masters and Courtney Smith were coming to the Arcade and even more surprising they were walking right towards the counter. Actually them going to play on one of the games would probably be more surprising.

“I told you that one of them would be here.” Courtney stated in a rather smug way as they stopped walking right in front of El.  

It seemed to be directed at them, but El couldn’t see why they would have any need with either of them. She couldn’t think of a time she had communicated with any of them that wasn’t some sort of cruel joke when she had first moved to Hawkins.

Unless that’s what they were here for…

“Hi, _Ellie_ , you and Mike aren’t together, are you?”

Why would Stacey-Ann think her name was Ellie? Had she ever been referred to as that? Damn, she would prefer being called by her actual name, Jane.

“Why does that matter?” Max asked that as El hadn’t actually processed the question yet.

It wasn’t an unusual question actually. Sometimes people assumed her and Mike were together. She didn’t really understand that, but she was used to it.

“Jennifer wants to ask him to the Winter Formal.”

El had to stop herself from saying that she was going to Winter Formal with Mike. She realized that they hadn’t actually discussed them going to it; had she just assumed that they would go together?

They danced today, but had the words ever been said that they would be there together? Dancing together?

The thought of not going to this dance with Mike was very strange and unsettling. She couldn’t imagine someone else going with Mike who wasn’t her.

“Well, that’s revolutionary. _Really_.” Max snorted, but this caused Courtney and Stacey-Ann to giggle.

“You do know it’s a Sadie Hawkins dance, right?”

El had no idea what that was, but she would ask Max later. Now was clearly not the time to be asking a question.

“ _So_?” Stacey-Ann was pushing for an answer again. Jennifer hadn’t said a word this whole time, but she looked nervous for the response. She always seemed like a nice person to El, compared to her friends at least.

She didn’t think that she should be going to Winter Formal with Mike though. No matter how nice she seemed.

The question that had been asked wasn’t what her opinion was of the situation though, it was just whether she was with Mike. In a sense it felt like they were together, but not in the way they meant.

“Mike’s my best friend.” She forced the words out, not liking that for once the words ‘best friend’ didn’t seem as important a status as it usually was to her.

“See I told you they just had a weird friendship.” Courtney said, practically gloating about El’s answer to her friends. Stacey-Ann smirked to Jennifer and that seemed to be the end of that conversation.

“Thanks, El.” Jennifer said with a smile, before pulling her friends away. She was proving once again that she was the nice one of her friends.

“What just happened?” El asked when they watched the girls walked away. Max pulled her eyes away from them to look at El with a matching stunned expression.

“Well, I think Mike might be going to the dance with the most popular girl in school.”


	2. Time After Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback to New Year's Eve one year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thank you for your lovely reviews for the last chapter!
> 
> Just a warning I am now going on holiday and not returning until the last week of November, so there will unfortunately be a little wait for chapter 3, but I'll give you teasers at the end of the chapter :) 
> 
> Sometimes you picture me--  
> I'm walking too far ahead  
> You're calling to me, I can't hear  
> What you've said  
> -Time After Time, Cyndi Lauper
> 
> BC isn't this an iconic 80s song (and not just BC it was in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion)

_November 25 th, 1988_

 

Eleven stood by Max’s locker needing to speak to her so badly that she didn’t even bother to meet up with the guys in their usual spot to meet in before school started. All her worries were being externalized to cause her to look like the most nervous individual on the school premises and that prompted Max’s greeting when she eventually turned up at her locker.

“Stressed much, stalker?”

Eleven immediately stopped biting down on one of her fingernails to practically sigh in relief at Max’s arrival.

“For obvious reasons.” She said rather loudly, gesturing around them as if that was the answer. “I was just thinking about how I danced with him last night to practice for this dance and I’m not even going with him and – I’m an idiot.”

The revelation of Jennifer Hayes wanting to ask Mike to the Winter Formal had not really left her mind since it had happened. Her and Max had discussed it as much as possible in the last hour of Max’s shift and all the way home, but it was when El had been dropped off at home and was left alone with her thoughts that the real torturous thoughts began.

Mainly the embarrassment of her practicing a slow dance with him merely minutes before the news came about. She had assumed that they would be going together, because they had before. Why did she feel like she could just assume that? She didn’t own him or anything. And how did she not know what a Sadie Hawkins dance was? That was surely valuable information to have whilst navigating High School.

Max simply sighed, opening up her locker. She clearly thought this talk was over with, but how wrong she was about that. El wouldn’t be done with this conversation for a long, _long_ time. After all this was the first time she had experienced confusion with Mike and so it was going to be something that occupied her mind for hours or days to come.

“Calm down, she hasn’t even asked him yet.”

“But she’s going to.” She chewed on one of her battered fingernails once more.

“ _But_ she hasn’t yet.” The pointedness of Max’s tone caused El to stand up a little straighter, because clearly she was missing something important here.

“Yes?” El asked, her eyes widening a little bit as she quietly begged Max to let her know.

“Okay, so I was thinking,” The thought of Max also thinking about this topic was already calming El down immensely. “You just need to ask Mike to the dance before Jennifer Hayes does. Why do we always have to call her by her fucking full name anyway?”

El didn’t know the answer to that question, so she just focused on the part she did kind of understand.

“Okay -,”

El had more to say, but Max extended her forefinger, directing it at El looking somewhat stern.

“ _But_ ,” Yes, she was definitely speaking sternly to El as well. “Less importantly – Jennifer Hayes and her little gang will fucking hate your guts for asking Mike after that little chat last night. More importantly – does Mike want to go with Jennifer Hayes? Do you want to take that option away from him?”

It was very apparent now to El that Max had thought about this quite a bit too and as she wasn’t emotionally involved in the matter of going to the Winter Formal with Mike, she definitely had a more sensible outlook on the situation. Max usually did though. She usually had the right information that you didn’t want to hear and that was why El wished that Mike was the one she could go to with this current dilemma, but obviously that wouldn’t work this time around.

“Look can I just ask you something else?” Max pulled El out of her tricky situation by suddenly slamming her locker door shut and seemingly willing to provide another opportunity to make El feel bad about herself. “Why do you _need_ to go with Mike?”

The careful decision for Max to say ‘need’ instead of ‘want’ to El was accurate. It was past wanting to go with him, it was definitely a need for her to go. Articulating that need was a difficult thing to do, because she knew she could word it badly and make it sound like she wanted to date Mike or something.

That was almost a ludicrous idea – they were best friends. It was simple to El, but it didn’t seem that way to others.  

“Well… I had nobody when I first started here and I could have continued having nobody with the way everyone was, but Mike was different, he was nice. He made me his friend and asked me to Snow Ball. It was the best night of my life and not going to Winter Formal with my best friend seems completely wrong.”

Max stared for a moment as El smiled after her rather emotional speech. Then Max gave a rather determined response.

“Okay, well, you have to ask him. Even though they were right, you guys do have a weird fucking friendship.” She started walking towards her first class and El rushed at her heels, giving her a snort of laughter.

“Not weird.”

“Just saying that it doesn’t surprise me that people say it’s weird. Remember the first time you were nice to me?” Max asked, confusing El with her phrasing. It suggested there was a time that El wasn’t nice to Max and that wasn’t something El could remember… or wanted to admit to.

“First time?” She asked innocently causing Max to now laugh loudly.

“Yeah, it was when I kissed Lucas for the first time.”

El stopped in her tracks, remembering that night. It was true that the relationship between Max and El had changed dramatically on that night, but something else had happened that night too.

Why was Max bringing it up though? She couldn’t think that things changed between her and El, because she had kissed Lucas, could she?

“I was never mean to you!” She called, running to catch up with Max down the corridor again.

“Yeah, you fucking were.” 

 

* * *

 

 

_December 31 st, 1985_

 

El had never been to a New Year’s Eve party before and the idea of it was quite foreign to her. Last year for her first year with Hopper, they had watched some New Year’s Eve footage on the TV and quietly wished each other a ‘happy new year’, which wasn’t that different from her time being an orphan and in foster care, but this year Mike’s family was holding their own party and both her and Hopper had been invited to join in the festivities.

It was a grand affair and was completely different to anything she had seen before. Adults were drinking and dancing and eating, whilst the kids played their own games away from the loud music.

The kids were pretty much just Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will and El as Mike got to choose who was invited from his friends and who else would he need to invite? It was funny how a year ago, she was still trying to adjust to a friendship with this group, but they were all her best friends now, not just Mike.

Dustin had managed to steal a whole plate of chocolate tarts quite early on in the night, so they were all making themselves sick from eating as much as they could. They were playing on some console that Mike had received for Christmas, whilst El continued to eat chocolate tarts. Her heart was full as she watched on, laughing as they all fought over who could go next.

And then she arrived downstairs in the basement. Max.

El hadn’t known she was coming to the party tonight and she almost thought that she hadn’t been invited, but the way she marched down the stairs made it obvious she was. She had a few samples of buffet food on her plate and she munched on it as she plodded down the stairs. El immediately glared at her, turning to Mike to see if he knew about this.

Max had moved to Hawkins that year. It was difficult being a new kid in the first year of High School, because everyone had their established friendships, but why did that mean she had to join their group of friends? Mike and El both didn’t want a new member to their group.

“Hi, losers,” Max announced, as she sat on the carpet next to Mike. Others excitedly greeted her, but El was happy to see that Mike seemed to be only politely greeting her.

“Where the hell did you get those sausage things from?” Dustin yelled, running upstairs as soon as Max signalled they came from upstairs.

“Hey, Eleven.” Max turned, trying to smile as she stared at El.

She didn’t respond, simply turning to show interest in something on the table.

Why did Max come? If Mike was in charge of who was invited then how did she get here? Mike and El had discussed how they didn’t want Max joining their group – they were in agreement. How was she here?

She didn’t want a new person in their group to ruin what she had. She didn’t want to be left behind as Max stampeded in with her loud words and the same interests as the boys. She didn’t want the others to prefer Max over her. She didn’t want Mike to like her.

And so El sat there quietly, glaring over as the boys continued to fight over the console and Max hit Mike away from the controller. She watched as Max touched Mike in a way that she wasn’t allowed to.

“Now watch me kick all of your asses.”

She did kick all of their asses in all four games that Mike currently owned for his console. This was another reason for El to hate Max, she was so good at everything that she couldn’t do. She would never have the guys staring at her in awe over winning games, they would probably do that if she once remembered what buttons did what on that control thing.

Hours seemed to pass of being trapped in the basement, watching as the boys and Max played and played, whilst she stayed on the couch. Mike kept turning and trying to get her to go over, but Eleven would simply shake her head and Mike took this as a sign that she needed space.

She didn’t want space, she wanted to be included, but without Max there. Everything was better without Max there.

“Okay, it’s getting boring beating you in everything now. Can we go upstairs?” Max suggested and El didn’t know whether the idea of going upstairs to join the rest of the party was a better or worse idea.

“Yes!” Dustin said, almost automatically as he stared at his empty plate.

“Okay, okay, but just to get this straight, you haven’t beaten us yet.” Lucas clarified, before standing up to join in with the others. Max nudged him.

“I don’t think we should get into that one.” Will commented, joining them as well.

Mike turned to look at Eleven before standing up as well, she slowly stood too, so Mike stood up enthusiastically.

‘Time After Time’ was playing throughout the house as they reached the ground floor – a strange choice for a song at a party. Adults were more intoxicated than before and El could see Nancy with her boyfriend, Jonathan, who was also Will’s older brother, chatting in a corner.

_Flashback – warm nights, almost left behind_

Dustin initiated a silly dance for the others to join in. They were erratic silly dance moves, as Dustin’s dancing always was, and usually El would join in, but not tonight. Max eventually started doing the silly moves and out of every single person she could have pulled in to dance with her, she dragged in Mike.

El couldn’t take any more after that. She ran out of the house, using the front door, before stomping up the hill in front of his house to where the pylons were.

“Eleven!” The soft voice called after her, along with the music as the door was opened once more.

_If you’re lost, you can look and you will find me._

The door slammed shut and the music ceased to play. Silence filled the night, bar the footsteps that were following El to where she sat on the hill.

“Jesus, El, did you run up here or am I just slow?”

Eleven shrugged, as Mike took a seat next to her.

The others all ran out of the house to stand on the grass outside. They must have known they were up on the slight hill in front of Mike’s house, but thankfully they didn’t follow them up. Mike seemed to notice El’s hard glare at Max.

“Hey, she’s really not bad, you know.” He started, but Eleven didn’t let him continue on.

“You lied. You said you didn’t like her too.” Mike sighed.

“I know, but the others like her and I’m starting to think she’s kind of… cool.” El could feel the sharp stab of tears pricking at her eyes.

“Cooler than me?” El choked out, turning her sad eyes to Mike’s face. Mike automatically grabbed her hand and squeezed it hard, as his face matched the hurt in El’s face.

“No, no, you’re the best. You’re better than the best – you’re the bestest best.” He lightly laughed, clearly hoping it would cheer her up. She cracked a small smile, liking it when Mike smiled at her like that.

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Mike reached out to dab at one of her eyes that had leaked out a single tear. Eleven turned with a smile to see if the others were still at the bottom of the hill, because she felt ready to join them again. Dustin and Will were laughing loudly at something and a quick scan of the rest of the front garden showed what they were laughing at. She let out a gasp and Mike turned his head to her.

“Max kissed Lucas.”

Mike looked momentarily surprised, but then he let out a short laugh.

“It’s midnight.”

Eleven furrowed her eyebrows, leaning in slightly to let him know she didn’t know what that had anything to do with anything.

“Oh,” Mike said, visibly searching the corners of his mind for the right explanation. “Okay, so on New Year’s Eve when it gets to midnight, sometimes people kiss someone.”

“Anyone? Friends too?”

“Yeah, I guess, I mean, Max just kissed Lucas.”

“So, we should kiss?”

“Uh… We could, yeah, we could.”

“Okay.”

Eleven leaned in and Mike did the same, his lips separating slightly as if in shock that this was happening. Eleven closed her eyes, because that was what you were supposed to do and then their lips smashed together in an awkward, fleeting moment. It gave Eleven the familiar buzz in her whole body that caused her eyes to shoot open, revealing Mike in a similar state of shock to his system.

And that was their second kiss.

Their hands were interlaced as they walked back down the hill to return to the others. El still didn’t know if anyone saw them that night, kissing by the pylons, as nobody ever mentioned it.

Everyone started wishing each other a ‘Happy New Year’ and Mike’s hand fell out of Eleven’s to hug the boys. El decided to take the opportunity to slowly approach Max with a small smile. Max looked scared, unfamiliar with this closeness with El.

“Happy New Year, Max.” The two girls smiled at each other.

When Max and Lucas kissed that night, they eventually started dating and they were still together now.

When Mike and Eleven kissed that night, nothing changed between them, but it brought Eleven closer to Max, because a part of her knew then that she would never lose out to Max when it came to Mike.

 

* * *

 

 

_November 25 th, 1988_

 

Dustin slammed his fists down on the cafeteria table as he took his seat causing everyone to jump in surprise. This kind of behaviour wasn’t that surprising though from Dustin.

“Is it true? Is it true?” He asked excitedly, looking expectantly at Will, Lucas and Mike. “Come on, guys, is it true?”

“I think we should limit your sweet intake per day,” Will commented, not even bothering to answer the question.

“That is beside the point – Mike?” Dustin asked, leaning forward, disrupting Mike from eating his slightly questionable looking mashed potatoes.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

Dustin’s expression was mixed between disappointment and excitement that he might know something that the others didn’t. He eyed Lucas, who simply shrugged as a response.

“Okay, holy shit!” Mike sat a little forward in his seat, as the others did, because Dustin was finally peaking their interest. “So I heard in last period that Jennifer Hayes wants to ask Mike to the Winter Formal!”

“ _What_?” Will asked.

“That’s impossible. Why would Jennifer be interested in Mike?” Lucas said, earning a hurt glare from Mike. “No offense, but you can see why it’s bullshit.”

“Who cares if it seems out of the realms of possibility - I heard it!” Dustin exclaimed.

Mike was sitting in silence, simply confused. It couldn’t be true. She was the goddess of their year and what would she get out of going to the Winter Formal with Mike? Had puberty really treated him that well?

“Jennifer Hayes?” Mike asked slowly, unable to hide the awe in his voice. Dustin nodded back very enthusiastically.

“What does it matter though?” Will asked quietly, causing Dustin to audibly gasp. “Aren’t you going to go with El?”

Trust Will to bring up something that Mike was trying to forget. As much as he would love to go to the dance with El, it would be as friends, wouldn’t it? And Mike really did want to just be friends with her now, but going to a dance with her? That would be too much. That would be like going to the Snow Ball with her when he was hoping it would be so much more.

He was past hoping and had to now be excited by things like Jennifer Hayes possibly (although unlikely) asking him to the Winter Formal.

Mike would never say that out loud though.

“Well, yeah, but she never asked me to go and it’s a Sadie Hawkins dance, so, I mean…” Mike shrugged.

“Does she even know what that is?” Will asked, not letting the topic drop.

“She would’ve asked me if she knew though.” Mike frowned, knowing that this was usually true.

Maybe she didn’t want to ask him to the dance? He had been confused when she wanted to practice dancing with him yesterday, but hadn’t asked him to it. Did she know what Sadie Hawkins dance was?  

“And this is Jennifer Hayes!” Dustin came back in, visibly frustrated with the most important issue of the conversation.

“I’m still not buying it… Again no offense.” Lucas commented, throwing his hands up in disbelief

“Actually I’m starting to feel a little offended.” Mike said, ripping a piece of bread to throw at Lucas.

“I’m just glad I don’t have to live in a fantasy world of someone asking me to the formal.” This was the rebuttal Lucas gave for having food flung at him.

“Why’s that?”

Mike and everyone else turned around to view Max slamming her food down on the table and sliding over next to Lucas.

“Uh... Because I’ll be going with you, stupid.” Max shrugged.

“I don’t remember asking you to it.”

“Oh, hey, Max, you must know!” Dustin shouted eagerly and Max turned away from smirking at Lucas to question what was going on.

“Dustin is trying to convince Mike that Jennifer Hayes wants to ask him to the formal.” Lucas said with a roll of his eyes, causing Mike to fling another piece of bread at him.

“Seriously?” He asked, wondering why Lucas had it out for him so badly today.

“Well...” Max began, looking suddenly a bit awkward at the conversation choice. Mike stopped looking at Lucas, in fact everyone was turning to Max now to see what she knew.

“Well?” Mike asked, leaning forward more to see what she could possibly know.

“Hi,” El joined the group hesitantly as she witnessed everyone’s intense stare on Max.

“Jennifer Hayes is asking Mike to the Winter Formal!” Dustin announced by way of explanation. Max and El stared at each other with a similar serious expression and Mike knew that they knew what was going on.

“Is it true, El?” Mike asked, staring at her and this urged her to look back at him. He didn’t know why he was asking her, but he trusted her to tell him. She pulled her eyes from Mike to exchange a quick glance with Max, but eventually she gave a silent nod.

There was no excitement behind her nod and the way she sat down at the table, next to Mike, where she normally sat.

Mike didn’t notice though, because as soon as El confirmed this was true, he was swamped with the conversation solely being about Jennifer Stupid Hayes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave me comments, because they make my heart swell
> 
> Chapter 3: It's house party night and a flashback to Eleven having a bad haircut

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, there will be flashbacks to all four of those kisses. 
> 
> Let me know what you think of the beginnings into a weird friendship that is basically love between Mike/Eleven. 
> 
> This probably won't get smutty (or very smutty anyway) bc even though i've aged them up it still kind of freaks me out to do that for them. 
> 
> I WILL LOVE YOU IF YOU REVIEW!


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